The popular, nonprofit, and educational Women’s History Month website returns in March. Now in its third consecutive year, the blog, KidLit Celebrates Women’s History Month founded by librarians, Margo Tanenbaum of The Fourth Musketeer and Lisa Taylor of Shelf-Employed, brings together distinguished authors and illustrators of books related to women’s history with librarians and bloggers from […]

Doll Bones By Holly Black Illustrated by Eliza Wheeler McElderry Books (an imprint of Simon & Schuster) $16.99 ISBN: 978-1-416963981 Ages 9-12 On shelves May 7th I don’t watch much horror in general. I’m what you might call a chicken. When I do see it, though, I’m not particularly disturbed by random splattering and gore. […]

Last year the idea was simple if a bit odd. I called upon my artist readers out there to consider in all that ample free time they have (why, oh why, is there no sarcasm font?) taking a classic Dr. Seuss book and drawing some aspect of it in the style of another children’s illustrator. […]

Not sure how long I’ll get to keep calling my little news items “Fusenews” since the Fuse network, hitherto not a problem in my sphere, has just decided to call their news program, you guessed it, Fuse News. But really, who am I to complain? It’s a kicky little term. So! The 2012 Cybils Awards […]

Think of it like Voltron. Or, better yet, don’t. If you are a clever daily blog reader and you have already seen the posts at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast, Nine Kinds of Pie, and 100 Scope Notes then what I’m about to tell you will come as no surprise. To wit: The Niblings is […]

Hank Finds an Egg By Rebecca Dudley Peter Pauper Press, Inc. $16.99 ISBN: 978-1-4413-1158-0 Ages 3-7 On shelves May 1st Photography in children’s literature holds a real fascination for me. No work of pure photography has ever won a Caldecott Award or Honor and, when it comes right down to it, there are only two […]

It was the shock of my lifetime to discover that kids really do dig nursery rhymes. To be a bit more specific about it, my kid in particular. Here she was, not even a year and a half old, and suddenly she could not get enough of those collections by Tomie dePaola and Arnold Lobel. […]

Diego Rivera: An Artist for the People By Susan Goldman Rubin Abrams Books for Young Readers $21.95 ISBN: 978-0-8109-8411-0 Ages 10 and up On shelves now National Hispanic Heritage Month runs from September 15th to October 15th. How many folks could tell you that off the top of their heads? Meanwhile, few awards are specifically […]

Boy, I love it when I set up a Literary Salon months in advance and then the universe conspires to make it even more timely than I’d initially intended. Expect this next one at the main branch of NYPL to feature one hot and toasty little panel talk. I shall mentally prepare in the interim. […]

Before we begin I would like to have a few words with the publishers on behalf of catalogers nationwide. Ahem. Hi, guys. How’s it going? Heckuva weird weather we’ve had lately, right? Yeah . . . so . . . here’s the thing. You know how you’ve been rereleasing a couple classic children’s books recently […]

One Came Home By Amy Timberlake $16.99 ISBN: 978-0-375-86925-9 Ages 10 and up On shelves now I like children’s books that sock you in the gut. Not the books that telegraph their hits or do the old one-two punch you can see coming from a mile away. No way, man, I’m talking about the books […]

So apparently in the 1980s the Brooklyn Public Library decided to take a page out of the Reading Rainbow handbook and came up with this series of kids recommending books that they loved. The result, so nicely posted on the Hairpin, will pretty much keep you amused all the livelong day. You just gotta wonder […]

Let’s set the scene for a moment. It’s the early 1980s. 3-2-1 Contact is giving young children an unceasing stream of Bloodhound Gang episodes. Men have not yet shaved the mustaches they acquired in the 1970s. Bicycles remain almost universally helmet-free. And in Kalamazoo, Michigan a little girl is given a very special present. Okay. […]

It is WAY too late in the day for me to be only starting a Fusenews post now. All right, guys. Looks like we’re gonna have to do today double quick time. Sorry, but I’ve a ticking time bomb in the other room (sometimes also known as “my daughter”) and I gotsta gets to bed […]

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About A Fuse #8 Production

Features everything from librarian previews of upcoming children's books to news, reviews, and videos. If it has something to do with children's literature, it will rate a mention here.

Betsy Bird is the Youth Materials Specialist of New York Public Library. She's reviewed for The New York Times and Kirkus, writes articles for Horn Book and SLJ, and wrote the picture book Giant Dance Party. You can contact her at Fusenumber8@gmail.com or follow her on . . .